Through a friend, I was asked this month to have a chat with a medical student who wanted to know more about the Butterfly Scheme. Usually, students are simply asked to look at the information on the website; it would be impossible to meet all those who request an individual chat, but I agreed to make an exception this time.
We looked, of course, at the fundamentals of hospital dementia care, but she also wanted to know how the Scheme had come into being – the reasons behind it and the practicalities of creating and establishing it. I explained that I’d been carer to my mother for thirteen years; we talked about the ups and downs of being a carer, as well as the trials and tribulations of hospital care for anyone living with dementia.
Her next question: So how were YOU during that time? I found myself smiling – because that’s exactly what I’d hope doctors and the rest of the healthcare team would factor into their thinking. Carers can be a hospital’s most valuable dementia care resource; they should be welcomed, included, respected and considered. May this student doctor continue thinking that way throughout her future career!
I pay tribute to all those teams out there who now think of it as normal practice to liaise with family and kinship carers, ensuring that we care for the carer, so that the carer can continue to care, too.